George Rodriguez, born in Laredo, and raised in San Antonio, attended and graduated from BYU in 1976. In 1981, he went to work in D.C. and worked in various capacities at the Justice Department during the Reagan Administration. He also worked with the White House Office of Public Liaison. He is now retired and continues to speak and write to further conservative policies and ideas.

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Statement on the U.S. Senate’s Immigration Proposal

The South Texas Alliance for Progress applauds the U.S. Senate’s bi-partisan efforts to address to fix the broken immigration system. We feel there are some good elements in their proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. We also support the idea of a temporary worker program.

However, we have some deep concerns about their proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally and to reward them with citizenship is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.

We have seen in the past that when conservatives give liberals an inch on any issue, they will take a mile. We should not give an inch on amnesty. Allowing those who broke the law to go back to end of the line will encourage others to brake the law to get in line.

Finally, we are very skeptical that President Obama will accept this bi-partisan proposal because he seems more interested in politicalizing and dividing the nation than in seeking bi-partisan solutions. This is a good start, but unless Obama supports the proposals, and unless people who broke the law are justly handled, we will not be able to fix our broken immigration system.